Railway car structure



Novc 4, 1947. K. T. NYSTROM A RAILWAY CAR STB'UCTURE Filed Feb. 9, 194e Patented Nov. 4, 1947 RAILWAY CAR STRUCTURE Karl lT. Nystrom, Chicago, Ill., assignor to Standard Railway Equipment Manufacturing Company, Chicago, Ill., a corporation of Delaware Application February 9, 1946, Serial No. 646,662

6 Claims. 1 i.

This invention relates to railway cars and more particularly to the wall construction thereof especially at the vertical corners thereof. End walls of railway house cars are commonly made of metallic plate having substantially horizontal parallel corrugations therein'which function as beams between the corner posts of the car. Side walls of such railway cars also include side wall sheets which extend between corner'posts of the car.

Recent trends in railway house car design have been toward ever increasing capacity and reduction in weight of the car, which, together with the increasing speeds at which trains are run necessitates a proportionate increase in the strength of the car walls. Improvements in the design of corrugated end construction approach the ultimate in strength of corrugated plate of a given material and weight, and consequently if further strength is desired with the same material and Weight, other factors must contribute to it.

It is ob-vious that if the span of a beam can be reduced it can carry a greater load to develop its bending moment limit. Also if the strength of the car corner construction can be increased so that the varying degree of fixation from a simple to a restrained beam is increased and a larger negative bending moment is developed, greater carrying capacity will result.

I1; is the principal object of the present invention to provide a house car corner construction which is of increased strength and to which a narrower corrugated end wall may be attached, thereby reducing the length of the corrugations or beams and consequently increasing the strength of same, without reducing the carrying capacity of the car.

Another object of the invention is to provide a strong corner post which comprises a pair of spaced Z section posts secured together by an additional part, preferably of integral formation, which, in eiect, is a single post.

Another object of the invention is to provide a post forming a vertical frame member for the end wall of a car which is formed to provide a ver-tical frame member for the side wall of the car or is adapted to be readily secured to a vertical frame member of the side wall of the car.

A further ob-ject of the invention is to incorvpera-te in my improved corner post structure means to attach corrugated end and/or side wall sheets to the corner post structure so as to make the corrugations semi-restrained beams, instead of simple beams, thereby materially increasing the strength of the corrugations as beams.

The improved structure is preferably made from a metallic sheet but may be made of cast metal, or other material, and still come within the scope of the invention.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will appear in the following description thereof.

Referring now to the accompanying drawing, forming part of this application, and wherein like reference characters indicate like parts:

Figure 1 shows a typical end wall for a railway car embodying the invention.

Figure 2 is a fragmentary side View of a car showing an end elevation of the end wall of Figure 1.

Figure 3 is an enlarged cross sectional View on the line 3 3 of Figure 1.

Figure 4 is a view similar to Figure 3 of a slightly modified form of the invention, but shows the structure on the opposite side of the car to that shown in Figure 3.

It is a relatively simple matter to increase the strength of railway house car end walls and corner structures by increasing the thickness of metallic plate from the usual one-quarter inch plate employed to say three-eighths inch, but this would also increase the Weight of the end wall fty percent, requiring the movement of that much more Weight as well as increasing the cost of the material and the cost of pressing the thicker plate. To increase the strength of a given plate which through design of corrugation had already been increased to the approximate maXimum by such design, presents a dierent problem which must be solved by other factors.

. In the drawing a typical steel Wall is indicated at l having substantially horizontal parallel corrugations 2 formed therein which act as beams and carry any loads imposed thereon to the corner structure of the car. The improved corner structure comprises a pair of vertical nailing posts 3 and 4 which are spaced from each other and set at substantially right angles to each other, the post 3 being normal to the vertical plane of the end wall and the post 4 being normal to the vertical plane of the side wall.

A corner plate is indicated at 5, which plate is bent intermediate of its ends at substantially a right angle on a relatively large radius, as indicated at 6, forming an arch so that when said plate is applied to the corner of a car said arch extends substantially between said posts 3 and 4. Corner plate y5 is attached at its upper and lower ends to the top and bottom frame members of the car. Due to the fact that the span is considerable, it is preferred that said arched portion be provided with a plurality of inwardly pressed corrugations l, the valleys of which are on substantially a straight line, as indicated, and the ridges of said corrugations are coincided with the curve of the arch, thereby materially strengthening the arched portion of said corner plate. Beyond the arched portion, one vertical margin of the plate is flat, as at 8, overlying the outer surface of post 3, and is bent inwardly at right angles, as at 9, overlapping and abutting the adjacent side of the post to which it is secured by a row of vertically spaced bolts I and continuing to the plane of the inner surface of said post, at which plane said plate is bent at right angles away from the post, providing the portion II, and is then bent at an obtuse angle, forming a flange or extension 23 extending to the inner` side of the corrugated plate I. The vertical edge of the flange or extension 23 is preferably scalloped or serrated to conform to and intert with the inner corrugated surface of the wall plate I and is secured thereto, as by welding, indicated at I2. Beyond the other side of the arched portion 6 the plate is flat and extends over the outer surface of post 4 and therebeyond for some considerable distance where it is formed with a flange I3 and a reflange I4 in the plane of the side wall lining I5 secured to the inner surface of post A. One arm I6 of a vertical angle is secured to post 4 by a vertical row of spaced bolts II and the other arm I8 abuts the inner surface of corner plate and is secured thereto in any desired manner. This vertical angle comprising arms IB and I8 is also preferably secured at its ends to the top and bottom frame members of the car. End wall lining I9 is secured to inner surface of the post 3, land to nailing filler strips 20 as shown.

With this type of corner construction it will be obvious that the wall sheet I may terminate with flat vertical margins 2l which overlap the portion 8 of the corner plate and post 3 and may be secured to said portion 8, as by welding 22. Thus the portions 9, I I and ange 23 of the corner post and the included portion of Wall I form a vertical box structural member adjacent post 3, forming an ideal wall post, inwardly of but adjacent the true corner of thev car, which receives any load imposed on the corrugated plate and carries same to the upper and lower frame members of the car, since the end wall I, post 3 and corner plate 5 are secured at their ends to said frame members. Said box-structural member also materially increases the degree of fixation of the wall to the corner structure since there is amaterially less tendency of the post to rotate upon its axis when the end wall is under impact transmitting such loads to said corner posts.

In practice the posts 3 may be located a distance inwardly from the true corner of the car so that the ends of the corrugations may termi- `nate about one foot inwardly of said true corner,

as shown relatively in Figure 4. In this modiiication a Z-bar 30 is provided overlapping two adjacent sides of the side wall nailing post 4 and secured thereto by a Vertical row of bolts 3 I. This Z-bar 30 is also preferably secured at its top and bottom to the upper and lower frame members of the car so that this modification presents an extremely strong corner structure comprising a Z-bar and a hollow post structure with a corrugated arch spanning the space therebetween, either or all of which may carry loads imposed thereagainst or transmitted thereto to '6.11 frame members of the car.

The formation of the corrugations in the corner of the corner plate 5 makes this portion of the corner very rigid, in substance a triangular hollow post structure, increasing the strength of the corner plate tremendously at that area.

The accompanying drawings illustrate the preferred form of the invention, though it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the exact details of construction shown and described, as it is obvious that various modifications thereof, within the scope of the claims, will occur to persons skilled in the art.

I claim:

1. A corner post structure for a railway freight car comprising two parts normal to each other, one of said parts formed with a substantially normal flange having a reange forming a Z section extending between and adapted to be secured to the upper and lower frame members of a car, a wall sheet secured to said post adjacent' the juncture of said flange and said one of said parts and having corrugations formed therein which terminate in said sheet adjacent said juncture, said reange provided with an extension substantially coextensive in length with the corner post and having the edge thereof secured to the corrugations.

2. A corner post structure for a railway freight car comprising two parts normal to and coextensive with each other, one of said parts formed with a substantially normal flange having a reflange forming a Z section extending between and adapted to be secured to the upper and lower rame members of a car, the meeting place of said parts formed with inwardly projecting diagonally disposed spaced indentations, and a wall sheet secured to said post adjacent the juncture of said flange and said one of said parts and having corrugations formed therein which terminate in said sheet adjacent said juncture, said reflange provided with an extension substantially coextensive with the post and having the edge thereof secured to the ccrrugations.

3. A corner post structure for a railway freight car formed with a metallic sheet and comprising spaced Z posts comprising inner and outer flanges, a flange of each post being connected by a part coextensive with the post and formed on a quadrant of a circle, said posts extendable between and adapted to be secured to the lower and upper frame members of a car and a wall sheet secured to the outer flange of one of said Z posts and formed with corrugations extending normal to said post structure which terminate in said wall sheet adjacent the last mentioned ange, the inner harige of the last mentioned Z post provided with an extension coextensive with the last mentioned Z post and secured to the oorrugations of the wall sheet.

4. A corner structure for a railway car having a metallic end wall sheet, said corner structure including a corner plate bent on a radius between its ends to form an arch, a marginal portion of said corner pla-te shaped to form a substantially channel-like structure adapted to extend between and be secured to the upper and lower frame members of a car, said end wall sheet overlapping the flanges of said channel-like structure and secured thereto so as to form a hollow corner post structure inwardly from the true corner of said car.

5. A corner structure for a railway car having a metallic wall sheet, said corner structure including a corner plate bent on a radius between its ends to form an arch, a vertical marginal portion of said corner plate shaped to form a substantially channel-like structure adapted to be secured to the upper and lower frame members of a ear, a vertical margin of said Wall sheet overlapping the flanges of said channel-like structure and secured thereto, said channel-like structure and the included portion of said Wall sheet forming a hollow box corner post structure inwardly from the true corner of said car.

6. A corner structure for a railway car having a corrugated metallic Wall sheet, said corner structure including a corner plate bent on a radius between its ends to form an arch, a vertical marginal portion of said corner plate shaped to form a substantially channel-like structure, one flange of which is formed with a serrated edge intertting with the corrugations of the Wall sheet, a vertical margin of said Wall sheet over- REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file `of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 2,359,077 Bancroft Sept. 26, 1944 2,265,178 Lohse et al Dec. 9, 1941 2,250,523 Christiansen et al. July 21, 1941 2,380,086 Tangerrnan July 10, 1945 

